Need some advice on where to go with my character.

Search for the steam engines in inventors shops (Tarant, Wheel Clan, Blackroot. I think there could also be one in Caladon, but I don't remember) every time you're in those cities, cos there appear very rarely. I've heard that in the wheel clan they appear the most often, but haven't felt the diffrence between it and Tarant, except that they are 100% more expensive in the clan, and for Caladon and Blackroot I'm not certain if they appear there, but for Tarant and Wheel Clan I am.

I personally don't like the mod removing the level cap, cos I think it gives you a possibility of getting too darn uberpowerful. Even having level 51, your on a higher level that any other beeing in Arcanum, including those, that are sitting thousends of years in the Void. I prefer instead of that to plan exactly how to distribute my character points. Before creating my current play character, I spend some time calculating character points in an excel file and planning how to distrubute them, remembering about items and blessing benuses, to create my technical firearms+dodge+repair master with full knowledge in smithy, gunsmithy, electrical and machanical.

In your case, I would invest those 5 points in some RPG places only, like one point in every technology discipline left for the pride of knowing a little of everything, or to master some skill like repair or if not it, another that I would eventually never use, like gambling, just for the fun of being a master.

But that's me. If you're willing to download the cap removing mod, you can try the gunslinger path. To check what version of Arcanum you have, simply open the Arcanum folder in which you have installed your game and open version.txt.

 

I'd just like a few more character points for tech skills. I'm already pretty uber in combat with my pyrotechnic axe and machined plate. I had some problems because I chose to be a half-ogre. Had I been human I wouldn't have invested in melee because I would have been able to use all guns from the start, whereas a half-ogre can't use most guns available at the beginning of the game. I also had to take the Sickly trait to avoid spending all my points on intelligence, so I was lacking initially in some other stats. I only really started getting serious tech skils after about level 30. I might take throwing or bow and then put points in Explosives so I can build a pyrotechnic bow and some hand-grenades.

What type of weapon is the tesla rod? Is it a gun or something else?

 

When you already are fully trained in melee combat, I don't know if investing in another fighting style wouldn't be a waste of points, those invested in the new fighting skill, or those invested in melee (for me it's owful to have a skill which I don't use because I have another which I use instead for that one).

Sickly background? Welcome in the club.
Well, the Tesla rod is a little mystery for me. It's build from a shocking staff and it is a staff itself, so you could think it's a melee weapon. Than again, it's a technological weapon which shoots projectiles using amunition (charges) which aren't arrows, so it sounds like firearms is needed to use it. But, the little picture that appears in the infobox when your cursor is over a tesla rod shows a crossed sword and axe on a technological background instead of a gun on a tech. background, so it could mean it's is a melee weapon after all. Or just, that it looks like one. However, when I searched on this forum some day in the past the answer to this question, there were thoughts, that the rod uses 1) firearms, or 2) melee, or even 3) both. I don't know, actually, I don't have it yet in my game, for know I know about the little melee picture only from the tesla gun schematic.

 

Apparently it's a gun. Damn.

 

I never thought much about the Tesla Rod.
In a game ive got a tech dwarf who built one and gave it to Jayna Stiles,
she certainly has fun with it making a nice display but i dont know how
effective this is.

 

I started thinking about it, when my friend, playing a techie, asked me if it's is a gun or a melee waepon, and when I tried to answer, I realized, that it's quite hard to tell.
It is in fact very easy to check. I have a character with max in firearms but no points in melee, it would be sufficient to just wield one in a hand and check what is the standart percentage chance of hitting, when it would be high it's a "gun", when low, it's a melee weapon. Unfortunately, I have actually 2 points invested in electric, and because of level 38, it's not easy to qiuckly get 5 character points just to check . O course we know, that in fact it's a gun cos it's a ranged weapon, but we don't know how the game recognizes it.

Hey xanaq, does Jayna actually hit anybody with it in your game? Because she is trained in melee but not firearms, and she maybe doesn't hit that oftem in my game with her fetherweight axe, but I think, that with a gun she would nearly never hit. You could check her own percentage of hit with it, when it would be 25% it would appear that it's a gun.

 

For some reason it won't let me put dex above 19 .

 

That reason would by your background. If it lowers any stat, it lowers the maximum in it. I don't have any experiance with it, but as far as I know, there are - if any, not sure if they work - three ways how to get to dex 20 it this situation. For a mage, which you are not, are the dexterity glowes, for a techie - charged ring(s), and for both - the blessing of Makaal or better Velorien.

 

I'm gonna do all the assorted blessings soon, just finding out the order and where they all are (and if I can get to all the areas yet).

 

Either you're injured, or cursed, or you're a dwarf. At least, I think dwarves get gypped out of one dex point and one charisma point.

 

I think it might be me being a half-ogre. Anyway, I wish there was a mod to just add levels 51-75. That'd be cool. Besides, if I followed Muro's advice (which is probably sensible) I'd be an uber killing machine regardless of only being level 50.

 

There's a hack in the download section that'll take you to level 125.
You could always delete the levels you don't want before installing it.

 

Yeah I think I'll do that, I didn't know it was so simple to reduce the number of levels.

I think my next character will be based on Herbet West- Reanimator. Gunslinger technologist with chemistry/electrical skills. Revive me some zombies .

 

Thge fact of being a half ogre doesn't affect your dexterity nor it's possible maximum, I'm not sure about the background, but in yor case, when you have a background reducing dex by 1, and can reach only 19 in dex - I don't think it's a coincidence.

Well, it isn't hard to become uberpowerful when having "only" level 50. In fact, when you plan the distribution of points wisely, you will have a perfect character at level 50 (or even sooner), and the points for levels over 50 will by wasted in some unused skill, just for the fact to gain experiance, even if you don't use it, cos you really don't need them.

BTW, call me a hardcore conservatist, but I think that implementing the 50 level cap was a great move, it makes every single character point extremely valuable, and it causes, that the player thinks more on his character and plans a strategy in the fact of levelling up much more than without it. And reminds us a truth from live, that no one is perfect in everything, specialisation exists, you either know almost everything about almost nothing or almost nothing about almost everything, etc.

 

That was a really nice way to explain the leveling system.

 

Well thank you for that opinion. I just had to say that, because after playing some RPG games I realised, that Arcanum by the cap makes the game more real, buy not without the chance of creating a really good in several things character. It just makes it a little more challanging, and than creating such character can make someone proud, more proud han becoming a god with all stats maxed in some other RPG. So I consider level cap removal not just a cheat, but something, that in a certain way, ruins some fun from the game.

 

I agree with the cap for like character stats, but it's quite annoying to be a technologist then only able to make a few things.

 

I agree. So even giving the player a possibility of becoming a master in several science disciplines is a lot of possibilities, notice, that most people in the game that you meet are strictly good in only one thing (there is no master in two skills at once, no master in two magic universities at once, a techie is either a herbalist or a gunsmith or a smith, etc).